Samsung's flagship device improves in nearly every way, but delivers a tough choice due to its design decisions

Reviews of Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd.'s (KSC:005930) highly anticipated flagship phone, the Galaxy S IV, went live today. Let's take a look at the reviews from five of the blogosphere's top sites -- AnandTech(Brian Klug), The Verge (David Pierce), All Things Digital(Walt Mossberg), Engadget (Brad Molen), and Gizmodo (Brent Rose).

So what's the general verdict?

The reviewers generally say that the GSIV is a clear step up from the GS3 in every area, so for Samsung smartphone owners who like their devices, it is a clear choice. Otherwise, the general verdict is that the GSIV's rough edges make it a tossup between it and its chief Android competitor -- the HTC One.

The GSIV has microSD, a replaceable battery, a slightly more powerful processor, and takes better outdoor photos. But the HTC One's camera performs better in low light, its battery life is reportedly slightly better, it has a more minimalist Android skin, and lastly it has a slicker case design.

But before we dig in, let us first recap the phone's specs, which were announced at the company's March 14 soft launch event in New York City, New York. For utility's sake we've tossed in some comparison with some top rival devices:

"If you were a critic of the GS3's plastic construction, you'll be disappointed with its successor -- the company's continuing its long-standing tradition of keeping metal out of the assembly lines, building the frame, back cover and faux-chrome edges with polycarbonate. It's a similar -- though lower-grade and not machined -- type of plastic you'd enjoy on flagships like the Nokia Lumia 920 or even the HTC One X+, so it's nothing out of the ordinary for Samsung."

"This is the iPhone school of thinking — you have an industrial design now that is borderline a trademark, it's selling well, and if you have something that's popular, why change it?

Samsung continues its liberal use of its favorite thermoplastic with SGS4, but... it tries to make its thermoplastic exteriors look like something else...with SGS4 there's now a faux carbon fiber motif going throughout, with a diamond checkerboard pattern that prevails on the front and back.

Much debate has been made around Samsung's continued use of plastic vs. metal in the industrial design of its smartphones and tablets...There's no getting around the fact that other OEMs are bringing increasingly sophisticated materials choices to bear with their designs, and this is an obvious weak point for SGS4.

What has improved dramatically with SGS4 are the buttons, which now are surprisingly awesome."

"The once-dominating force of a Snapdragon S4 chipset is now eclipsed by the Snapdragon 600, and we have a feeling history will repeat itself later this year as soon as the 800 is unleashed into the world. Think about it: out of the six benchmarks above, the GS 4 managed to set records in five of them, with the One (the previous record-breaker) not too far behind."

It's immediately apparent that something is different here because Samsung is shipping the Snapdragon 600 at a higher frequency than any other OEM. The Krait 300 cores in SGS4 can run at up to 1.9GHz vs. 1.7GHz for everyone else.

Digging through the Galaxy S 4 kernel source we see references to an APQ8064AB part...Iwe might be looking at an actual respin of the APQ8064 silicon in APQ8064AB....it's clear to me that the Galaxy S 4 is shipping with something different than everyone else who has a Snapdragon 600 at this point.

"The low level triangle tests all show significant performance gains over the only other Snapdragon 600 based phone we have (HTC One)....The Galaxy S 4 manages to outperform the HTC One by around 17%."

"On WiFi the Galaxy S 4 falls behind the HTC One by an appreciable amount, however there's still an improvement in battery life compared to the Galaxy S 3....Talk time is excellent on the Galaxy S 4, with the phone delivering effectively the same battery life as the HTC One."

"In decent lighting, the camera is among the best shooters out there. Images are very sharp and there's a surprising amount of depth of field. Colors are rich, though they border on over-saturation, and video quality is excellent."

"My test model was running on the T-Mobile network and even indicated that it was using super-fast LTE, which T-Mobile is still building out, in some areas. But data download speeds in the D.C. suburbs averaged just 6.96 megabits per second, versus 20.81 mbps for an iPhone 5 running Verizon LTE. The Galaxy S 4 would likely be faster on Verizon in the same location."

"One of the subtlest tweaks to the design in the GS 4 may also be one of the most effective: the Gorilla Glass 3 rests just a hair below the edge of the screen. This tiny move makes the screen a tad less vulnerable than the GS3, which features glass that sits slightly above the edge. This won't guarantee your screen's safety when you drop your phone, but it at least increases the likelihood of it surviving an impact at an angle."

"The GS4's 5-inch, 1920 x 1080 display is big, beautiful, and seriously eye-catching. The latter is partially a bad thing: the S4 uses a Super AMOLED panel like many of Samsung's phones, and like many of Samsung’s phones it displays overly contrasted and vibrant colors. Those colors may not be accurate — reds and oranges absolutely explode off the screen, whether they should or not — but they certainly catch your eye. And with a ridiculous 441 pixels per inch, even the PenTile display matrix I usually loathe causes no problems."

"Samsung's existing user base is likely the easiest to talk to about the Galaxy S 4. Compared to any previous Galaxy S device, the SGS4 is a clear step forward in all of the right areas...If you're a happy owner of a Samsung Galaxy S/S2/S3, you'll likely be a happy owner of a Galaxy S 4.

It's when you compare the Galaxy S 4 to its chief technical competitor, the HTC One, that the discussion becomes more complicated. HTC and Samsung take very different approaches to nearly every aspect of their flagship smartphones."

"There were two Android phones worth buying, the One and the Nexus 4. That number is now very clearly three, but I had hoped against hope that Samsung would emerge the undisputed winner. The Galaxy S4 is a very good phone in most respects — it has a stellar camera and solid battery life, blistering performance and an impressively useful complement of software features. It's a technological achievement — there's no question about that.

You can have the far better-looking phone or you can have the slightly better-performing phone — and you really can't choose wrong. If the GS III is any indication, millions upon millions will choose the GS4. Me? I think design matters. Polish matters. The Galaxy S4 is fast and impressive, but it's also noisy and complex. The One is refined, quiet, comfortable, beautiful, and above all simply pleasant. I love using that phone, in a way I haven't experienced with anything since the iPhone 5. That's why, when my contract is up in June, I'll probably be casting my lot with HTC instead of Samsung."

Agreed! Lack of a replaceable battery is a deal breaker for me. I know that probably isn't the case for most people, but I LOVE being able to swap out a dead battery for full power when I'm on the run.

My point exactly, I need replaceable battery and most of all a microSDHC. If they would ever made a phone with 2 SD card slots or even better, with mSATA I would be the first to buy one.Also the SuperAMOLED is far superior in outdoor use.

Agreed. HTC is so "thick" to think that sleek design and Apple style minimalistic design is what people wanted. No SD card and no replacable batteries are the top 2 features that drives people AWAY from it. They wondered why they cannot beat Samsung ?!. What a bunch of snobs (wanna-be types) those HTC designers !.

Well that's why everyone has a different opinion and a bank account to go with it.

I prefer the HTC One over the S4 any day (both are great phones). I prefer my cell phones not have an SD cars slot and I will never again carry a cell with a removable battery. Some features important to some are complete deal breakers for others. Throw in better aesthetics, better material quality, nearly better battery cd, very close CPU performances, simpler UI, and a smaller screen and that rounds out the features that would make me choose the One over the S4.

1. Drop tests. Poor, very poor. HTC claims the One is uni-body, however it's actually not. The speaker grills are glued on, and WILL snap off the very first time you drop the phone. What's the point of a metal chassis if you are forced to wrap the phone in one of those ugly cases?

2. Removing Android buttons we've come to know and love in lieu of a giant HTC logo. Just..why? You've made the phone less usable for no good reason!

Now these are just my opinions. It's still a great phone, but for me HTC has asked me to compromise on too many things. Samsung doesn't.

quote: Really? That doesn;t seem to be the case based on sales of the HTC One vs the S3.

Samsung outspends HTC on marketing by a factor of ten (it actually exceeds HTC's total revenue), they have global reach that HTC doesn't, and they have a stronger brand with the Galaxy. HTC by contrast releases more flagship devices per year, each with a different name. Terrible branding even though their products are good.

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